大象传媒

This story has been contributed to the People's War by the 大象传媒 Learning Centre, Gloucester, on behalf of Clare Smith with her permission.

I was 13 when war broke out and lived in what is now Mill Lane but was then known as Church Lane in Cranham, near Painswick. I knew very little concerning PoWs other than our own menfolk in camps across Europe and anything first hand was confined to newsreels and what was in magazines or heard on the radio. Therefore 鈥楤ino鈥� was a person of curiosity.

Tassa Barnabas, when I first met him at Ladlecombe in Cranham, helping Mr Bowl with the farm work and his parish milk round, was of interest. A sturdy man with a smattering of English tossed in with Italian and a lot of gesticulations, he was swarthy of complexion with a small moustache and to my sizing up looked as if he had always worked the land.

Mainly he worked cheerfully but he was emotional, abruptly changing from cheerfulness to dour and gloomy spirits. There must have been many frustrations in his life. No news from home and the inability to communicate may well have triggered off low spirits when his cut-throat razor seemed prominent in his thoughts. He was, however, trusted enough eventually to 鈥榣ive in鈥� at Ladlecombe, gradually adjusting to farm life. He could positively assure one that he could do something when in actual fact he was unable to do so. One such occasion was the summer day when it was decided it would be a good idea to pull out some of the bulrushes that grew encroachingly into the lake, using a couple of logs or railway sleepers to ferry the rushes from shore to shore. This developed into a fun situation with a lot of laughter and splashing, probably misinterpreted by Bino who read into the situation 鈥榙rowning鈥� and gallantly ran splashing into the lake out to the group at work. But Bino could not swim and the logs were an unstable craft and he went down, under, up, gesticulating and shouting 鈥淚 alright, missus, I alright鈥� when obviously he was NOT.

Then came the day when I was met by Bino with a long face to say 鈥楳issus鈥� was in bed, describing her affliction of mumps by pulling the flesh under his ears outwards and saying 鈥淢issus has plenty meat鈥�.

Bino had a greater affinity with horses than horsepower and consequently deposited 鈥極scar鈥� (a converted Austin 7 for delivering milk) backwards down a woodland track climbing up out of Ladlecombe. I鈥檓 sure he was calling 鈥淚 alright, missus鈥�!

Most PoWs had hobbies and Bino seemed to make ingenious articles with anything to hand. From food cans he produced cigarette cases with patterns and designs in the metalwork. He also contructed doll鈥檚 furniture for little Yvonne Bowl and he also made lovely pokerwork patterns on bits and pieces of wood.

Bino sent us letters when he was in a transit camp on February 9th, 1946, en route home and another dated March 9th 1946 from Italy. Later he came back to the Cotswolds to work in the Compton Abdale area.

These reminiscences have been produced with the appreciated help of Mrs Yvonne Castiglione, nee Bowl, daughter of Mr W.O. Bowl who farmed at Ladlecombe, and her brother Mr C.A. Bowl. The family鈥檚 dairy herd browsed the common during the appropriate season and there was a 鈥榖oss cow鈥� wit a collar and bell that enabled those who were seeking the herd near milking time to locate their position.

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